Viewpoint – Communication – It’s only just begun

Faced with dramatic political challenges and the worst economic crisis in recent memory, the health and safety profession is on the defensive. Peter Roddis argues that it needs to respond by looking to the future and learning to communicate with the emerging generation using methods and language it understands.

It has never been more important to look to and plan for the future, to develop a new vision for health and safety. The media depicts a world of health and safety that is out of touch with reality, risk-averse, bureaucratic and dogmatic. Even the prime minister believes that “one of the biggest things holding people back is the shadow of health and safety”.¹

Business as usual would be a recipe for disaster,² as it seems evident that health and safety is failing to communicate. The profession needs to reinvigorate its offering by developing new and creative ways of looking at the world and presenting more innovative solutions. We need a real debate among thought-leaders in the profession, who can help us navigate the challenges and opportunities, and prepare for the new and changing risks we face.

Now, more than ever, it is crucial for us to systematically anticipate, identify and engage with emerging socio-economic and workplace trends. At a societal level, values are changing as each generation develops markedly different characteristics from those of previous generations. An understanding of emerging generations will help us understand how to change so that we are able to engage with their values and beliefs.

Generational theories have identified four distinct ‘generations’ since the war (see panel overleaf),³ to which have been attributed a range of differing values and behaviours. This suggests we need to take a very different approach if we are to be successful in convincing emerging generations that health and safety is important.

The sustained success of commercial organisations such as Virgin, Coca-Cola and Pepsi was built on harnessing emerging youth culture. Fifty years ago, Pepsi’s answer was: “There are Coke people, and there are Pepsi people. If you’re a Pepsi person you are young, and the future’s on your side.”⁴ The question we should be asking is: how can we harness emerging generations so we can successfully communicate, educate, engage, and win hearts and minds?

A brave new world

The world in which we now live presents us with a novel set of risks that require a different response. By 2017, 83 per cent of the UK workforce will be involved in occupations that require access to information and knowledge, from managerial to clerical professions.⁵ At an economic level, we have already seen rapid change, away from manufacturing to the service sector. The new job markets are in information and communication technologies, pharmaceuticals, medical biotechnology, aerospace, electronics, business, and professional services.⁶

Emerging generations do not see technology as a tool; for them it is simply life. Emerging generations won’t accept anything less than the latest in technology; they grew up with it, it’s the way they communicate, and its usage already pervades every realm of business and leisure activity.⁷ To identify with the vibrancy of these technologically-able generations, health and safety professionals need to dramatically evolve and change.

Jane McGonigal estimates that a 21-year-old has spent 10,000 hours gaming⁸ — about the same amount of time spent studying for GCSE qualifications. She argues that this has changed the way they think, and that gaming can help change the world for the better.⁹ Games can teach and inspire and engage us in ways that reality cannot.

McGonigal uses an example of kids who spent just 30 minutes playing Super Mario Sunshine (in which you clean up pollution and graffiti around an island), who were more likely to help friends, family and neighbours in real life for a full week after playing the game. There must be some potential benefits in exploring how this can be used in the health and safety field, if only as a way of raising the awareness of health and safety in children.

Communication with emergent generations in the workplace is likely to present a whole new challenge. If the profession is to keep up with and take advantage of this brave new world, we need to realise that interpersonal computing is now the primary communication media. We need to make better use of the Internet, not just by joining Twitter and Facebook but by developing innovative online solutions to learning and knowledge management.
We need to use technology to empower individuals to conduct their own education, find their own inspiration, and shape their own environment so that it is safe and healthy for them and others.

Style vs substance

We only have to look at the mobile-phone market to see that emerging generations are obsessed with style. Style over substance is not an ‘either or’ for them. The better it looks, the more you want to use it and the more you get out of it anyway.

The Apple phenomenon built on the designs of Jonathan Ive provides a real example of this. Apple has somehow turned these grey frumpy objects called computers into desirable pieces of sculpture you’d want even if you didn’t use them.¹⁰ Does this present hope that even the health and safety profession can turn its image around? We have much to learn from this in relation to the ways in which we present safety information, devices and PPE, as well as how we present regulations, policy, guidance and safe working practices.

The Löfstedt report¹¹ has provided a real opportunity to reinvent health and safety, which we need to embrace. A key action, identified by the review, is the need to do more to emphasise employee responsibilities. Given their characteristics, this will be crucial for emerging generations.

Research suggests that emerging generations are highly independent and value their freedom. More questioning and challenging than previous generations, they will expect to see a clear evidence base for anything likely to impinge on their freedom. IOSH’s Li£e Savings campaign is a good example of how we have improved in this.¹² However, the problem for health and safety is that no spreadsheet, no bibliography and no list of resources is sufficient proof to someone who chooses not to believe.

While they are more likely to see issues of health and safety as their own concern, emerging generations will be less than tolerant of what are depicted by the media and others as overbearing regulations.¹³ We have got to really challenge our image in the media and we seem uncertain how to do this. Relying too much on proof distracts you from the real mission – which is emotional connection.¹⁴ Emotion is a strong driver of consumer behaviour. Emotional connection results in resonance and we need to make better use of this approach.

The good news is that while emerging generations prefer transparency, they also like clear, consistent rules in every aspect of life. If we provide strong evidence and emotional connection, then they will be more likely to be compliant with safe systems of work, permits to work, detailed policy and guidance documents.

In the past, finding facts hasn’t always been easy, but today they are available at the speed of light, which those who have grown up with Google know. Good decision-making is based on understanding, not knowledge, and too much information can cause confusion. Löfstedt recently quoted Lord Robens’ view that “the first and perhaps most fundamental defect of the statutory system is simply that there is too much law”.

Simplicity is now seen as the ultimate in sophistication by emerging generations, which means simplifying the regulatory framework is essential.

Training

Current reliance on traditional classroom or toolbox-talk health and safety training will not be enough. Health and safety training requires a complete rethink for a generation that has grown up with YouTube, and which communicates by text, through Facebook and via Twitter. We need to re-energise existing means and methods, open and stretch our minds to a new approach, and continue searching for new ways to motivate and educate.

Emerging generations will require well-written, stimulating training that involves bucket loads of interaction. Light and interactive entertainment, not dull and outdated training, is crucial to keeping them interested. Group projects, in which the participants have to think and come up with their own creative solutions, will be most appealing. The best training will include real stories and case studies that reflect the moral imperatives of what we do.

Young people love using technology, so we need to embrace online training, discussion forums, blogs and videos to reach out to and engage them.

Working patterns

The emerging generation’s use of communication technology allows them to work from any location in the world. There is little doubt that the next decade is going to see the traditional temporal boundaries between home and work disappear altogether.7 The traditional workplace and all of the controls that go with it will all but disappear, impacting on employees by increasing their physical isolation and giving them more responsibility for managing their own workspaces and activities. Health and safety will need to respond to this.

Employees will switch jobs frequently, and this is also likely to have an impact in terms of their engagement, development and learning.7 According to the HSE, the risk of workplace injury declines rapidly as employment tenure increases.¹⁵

All of this makes it crucial to ensure that young people enter the workplace with a grounding in health and safety and understanding of risk. Health and safety has got to be a bigger part of education. IOSH has campaigned for better take-up of initiatives like Wiseup2work, but we need to see much more progress.

Summary

The ongoing economic crisis and political challenges are testing our resilience. The old aphorism has it that ‘if we keep doing what we have always done we will get what we have always got’, but the reality is that we won’t even get that, because the world is changing too rapidly.

The health and safety profession is faced with challenging cultural and economic changes and has no alternative but to grasp these as opportunities to change and improve the understanding and profile of health and safety. Simplicity is the new order and requires elimination of anything that clutters the user experience. It is complexity resolved.

To promote the benefits of good workplace health and safety we will need to look at ways of making better use of communication technologies to achieve this more effectively. We need to become ‘insanely great’ at communication if we want to appeal to emerging generations.

Providing understanding through information technology and the media is an important part of this, and emerging generations will not accept anything less than the best in terms of technology and communication. Style and substance need to become important aspects of what we do.

IOSH needs to continue to campaign for health and safety to be part of education but must also take the initiative itself. Games can teach and inspire and engage us in ways that reality cannot. We need to consider how we can make use of these approaches to educate and raise awareness of health and safety.

As Tom Peters says, ‘life is theatre’¹⁶ and we need to make every activity and contact memorable. Every one of us is an actor; this is as true in the provision of health and safety services as in running a hotel, or teaching in the classroom. Getting the “theatre bit” is the essence of strategy. Acknowledging “theatre” as the centrepiece of effectiveness in implementation and acting accordingly is of the utmost importance. We need to see this challenge as a call to action; we still have something great to do. 

References
1    David Cameron, speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in 2011
2    Carlson, C and Wilmot, W (2006): Innovation, New York Crown Business
3    HSE (2010): Horizon Scanning Short Report – The Generation Gap: Towards Generation Z
4    Zyman, S and Brott, A (2003): The End of Advertising as We Know It, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 047142966X, pp71-73
5    HSE (2006): Horizon Scanning Intelligence Group Short Report – Flexible working and employment patterns
6    HM Government (2009): Jobs of the Future – Building Britain’s Future
7    Price Waterhouse Coopers (2007): Managing Tomorrow’s People – The future of work
8    McGonigal, J (2007): ‘Gaming can make a better world’ – TED presentation
9    McGonigal, J: Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
10    Bloomberg Business Week (2006): ‘Who Is Jonathan Ive? An in-depth look at the man behind Apple’s design magic’
11    Löfstedt, Prof R (2011): Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety regulation
12    www.iosh.co.uk/news_and_events/ campaigns/new_campaign_life_savings.aspx
13    Stacey, K (2011): ‘Move to halve workplace safety red tape’, in the Financial Times, 28 November 2011
14    Godin, S (2010): ‘Too much data leads to not enough belief’, blog article, 21 January 2010
15    HSE (2006): Horizon Scanning Intelligence Group demographic study
16    www.tompeters.com/blogs/freestuff/uploads/19Es_of_Excellence_011909.pdf

Peter Roddis has more than 26 years’ experience in health and safety.

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